How can robots use their motors and sensors to move around in an unstructured environment? You will understand how to design robot bodies and behaviors that recruit limbs and more general appendages to apply physical forces that confer reliable mobility in a complex and dynamic world. We develop an approach to composing simple dynamical abstractions that partially automate the generation of complicated sensorimotor programs. Specific topics that will be covered include: mobility in animals and robots, kinematics and dynamics of legged machines, and design of dynamical behavior via energy landscapes.

De la lección

Behavioral (Templates) & Physical (Bodies)

We’ll start with behavioral components that take the form of what we call “templates:” very simple mechanisms whose motions are fundamental to the more complex limbed strategies employed by animal and robot locomotors. We’ll focus on the “compass gait” (the motion of a two spoked rimless wheel) and the spring loaded inverted pendulum – the abbreviated versions of legged walkers and legged runners, respectively.We’ll then shift over to look at the physical components of mobility. We’ll start with the notion of physical scaling laws and then review useful materials properties and their associated figures of merit. We’ll end with a brief but crucial look at the science and technology of actuators – the all important sources of the driving forces and torques in our robots.
Link to bibliography: https://www.coursera.org/learn/robotics-mobility/resources/pqYOc